The Smackdown Speedthrough

Segment 1

Dedicated to Becky

Tonight’s show is dedicated to the memory of Pedro Morales, who passed away earlier this week.

The show kicked off with a clip of last night’s explosive finish, when Mr. McMahon suspended Becky for 60 days and replaced her with Charlotte Flair.

They cleverly used Vince’s introduction of Charlotte on Raw to introduce her here as well.

Charlotte said she had told everyone Mania was her destiny, and she wished she could say her heart was breaking for Becky… but it wasn’t.

Flair called herself the backbone of the Womens Division, the franchise player and a born winner.

However, she said Mr McMahon had chose her simply because it was great for business.

She said the Mania Main Event was the jewel in the year’s crown and it needed someone in there who would go down as a Hall of Famer, not a flash in the pan like Becky.

Flair preemptively dedicated her Mania Main Event win to her best friend Becky Lynch.

Flair said she would be ringside at Elimination Chamber to watch Rousey face Riott, and pondered on whether there might be a new Champion going into Mania.

She winked to the camera after promising not to interfere, intimating that she might have plans to influence a switch of the belt onto Riott.

Match 1

Tag Team Triple Threat Match

The IIconics
Vs.
Naomi & Carmella
Vs.
Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville

This was a fun match on Raw, and not a bad one here either.

The IIconics stayed out of the match for the whole thing, which was clever on their part.

In the end Naomi and Carmella got the win over Rose and Deville, meaning the latter will kick off the match against Sacha and Bayley.

The WWE love taking random surprise out of things these days, I’m surprised we don’t know the exact order of entry for this match.

Before and after this bout all the teams involved on Sunday spoke about why they were best placed to win.

Naomi & Carmella win by Pinfall.

Segment 2

McMiz TV with The Usos

Miz and Shane made their way to the ring after commercials to interview their Pay Per View opponents.

While they did we found out that Mustafa Ali is out of Elimination Chamber due to injury, and he will be replaced by one member of New Day.

Miz did his usual spiel at the start of the show, then announced that Shane McMahon would be on NCIS. Cool if you watch it I guess.

Shane brought The Usos to the ring with a grand introduction, and the commentary team surprised me by delivering an interesting fact…

Miz and Shane have been in a grand total of 1 Tag Team Championship match… The Usos have been in 53.

Crazy numbers.

Anyway, The Usos chose not to sit as they went about discrediting the Champs, claiming they were just wannabe Usos.

The Usos made Miz and Shane take the Tag Team Test, which was a kind of rubbish version of Mr and Mrs that was open to blatant shenanigans (which Miz and Shane took full advantage of.)

Miz brought up Mandy Rose and the atmosphere changed.

Some harsh words were exchanged but it looked like things were going to end amicably, only for The Usos to Superkick the Champs to the canvas.

This would have been a brilliant setup to Elimination Chamber if it wasn’t for the fact Jimmy Uso got arrested this week and therefore has less chance than Enzo Amore of being Champ any time soon.

Main Event Match

Gauntlet Match

Daniel Bryan(w/Rowan)
Vs.
Kofi Kingston(w/The New Day)

So this match determines who enters the Chamber last on Sunday. I mean woe betide the WWE creative team to go with a bit of surprise and spontaneity.

Before the match Bryan grabbed a microphone.

He said a lot of people wanted him to lose the title at Elimination Chamber, but the truth was they were just lying to themselves because they were fickle and needed someone like The New Daniel Bryan to show them how to live their pathetic little lives.

Bryan claimed the fans NEEDED him as WWE Champion, and explained that he didn’t want to be inside the Elimination Chamber because it was painful and would likely shorten his career, but he had to make sacrifices in order to retain the WWE Championship.

The New Day interrupted him go get this match underway, choosing Kofi to be their representative.

This first leg seemed to go on FOREVER. Multiple times it looked like Bryan had the win, only for Kofi to kick out at the last second.

If this had been a one-off Main Event match I’d have thought it was a massive effort from both men, but when you consider there were 4 guys waiting backstage to carry the bout on… it was ridiculous.

You’d expect the current Champion to last quite a while in this gauntlet, right?

Well he did… but he still didn’t make it out of this first bout.

Rowan got involved, so Big E and Xavier took him out and the official ejected The New Day from ringside.

Moment later Rowan hurled Kofi into the timekeepers area without the ref seeing, which earned him an ejection to.

Bryan tossed Kofi back in the ring and set up for his finisher, but Kofi hit Trouble in Paradise out of nowhere for the 3.

Kofi Kingston wins by Pinfall.

Main Event Match

Gauntlet Match

Jeff Hardy
Vs.
Kofi Kingston

By this point Kofi had been competing for over 30 minutes, and he was either genuinely exhausted or selling it well as he could barely stand at some points.

He put Jeff away after another 5 or so minutes though, in a frenetic competition.

An SOS did the job, which it rarely does.

Kofi Kingston wins by Pinfall.

Main Event Match

Gauntlet Match

Samoa Joe
Vs.
Kofi Kingston

After over 45 minutes in the ring Kofi got caught in a Coquina Clutch and it looked like it was curtains.

However, Kofi climbed up the turnbuckle and pushed back, flooring Joe and keeping him on his back for a 3 count.

Joe did what Joe ALWAYS does in this situation and beat the crap out of Kofi, choking him some more.

Eventually A.J Styles hit ringside and actually saved his opponent from Joe, running him to the back.

Kofi Kingston wins by Pinfall.

Main Event Match

Gauntlet Match

A.J Styles
Vs.
Kofi Kingston

While most would have rolled Kofi into the ring and covered him right away, A.J checked on Kingston and the match didn’t continue until he was able to drag himself to his feet.

So much for that ‘Real A.J Styles’ and his ruthless mentality.

A.J told Kofi to throw in the towel, but that just fired Kingston up.

Kofi said he’d been there 11 years and he was ready to go, then pie faced the former champ.

A.J clocked him and stomped him down in the corner.

As Kingston’s time in the ring ticked past the hour mark he went for an all-or-nothing Double Knee on the apron, missing completely and colliding with the steel.

He dragged himself back into the ring at a count of 9 though, and after A.J missed a Huricanrana he hit a completely unorthodox Splash to the back.

A.J kicked out though and locked in the Calf Crusher, which Kofi finally tapped to.

What an effort!

A.J Styles wins by Submission.

Main Event Match

Gauntlet Match

A.J Styles
Vs.
Randy Orton

Orton’s RKO’s out of nowhere have become so predictable I called this spot as soon as his music hit.

A.J focused on the ramp, watching for The Viper, but he slithered into the ring from the back, hit an RKO and covered for the 3.

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on Tuesday, February 12th, 2019 at 11:38 am and is filed under - The Smackdown Speedthrough.
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